LATAM informed US authorities that it had given up negotiating with the owners of GOL planes to incorporate the 737s into its fleet.
In a document sent to the American Securities and Exchange Commission, the SEC, and obtained by AEROIN, LATAM said that it contacted the lessors through financial representative Seabury, and that “It took several weeks of follow-up from LATAM and its lawyers for Seabury to finally schedule an introductory aircraft lease call with the LATAM fleet team on March 21, 2024.”
During that call, LATAM stated that, rather than discussing a framework to explore possible transactions to assume Boeing 737 leases, which could benefit the assets of creditors (lessors), Seabury delivered a different message. Specifically, according to the finance company, creditors “cannot assume and assign” leases and, therefore, LATAM should simply “keep an eye on the process” for rejection movements, at which point LATAM would be “free to engage” with the relevant lessors.
LATAM states that this move is contrary to a letter sent by the lessors’ representatives to the American courts on March 1, which states that keeping the aircraft with GOL could cause unnecessary expenditure for creditors.
The airline also highlighted that there was no effort on the part of the lessors to transfer GOL’s aircraft to the competing company, even if this would have been beneficial.
“For these reasons, especially the lack of meaningful engagement by lenders in commercial discussions with LATAM, and the urgency of the company’s narrowbody aircraft needs, LATAM has determined that the likelihood of it and the lessors entering into transactions for Boeing 737 aircraft, it is now remote,” the airline said.
Furthermore, LATAM claims that it has been unable, over the past few months, despite its extensive efforts, to obtain 737 aircraft from other sources unrelated to GOL’s creditors.
Therefore, it is unlikely that LATAM will continue to pursue any transactions involving the Boeing 737. Instead, due to the scarcity of available 737 aircraft, as well as the refusal of GOL’s lessors to cooperate, LATAM is obtaining, through several alternative channels, , other narrowbody aircraft model options, without informing which specific examples the company managed to raise.
